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Master Yoda

It’s been an awesome adventure with the P104 team; from writing policy proposals, to organising local community events, to drafting the alternative budget, attending to residents’ concerns, and the weekly badminton sessions (my favourite!).

One of my inspirations do study Mathematics during my university days was from the TV series Numb3rs, where two brothers (one’s a Mathematics professor at a US college, while the other’s an agent with the FBI) solved crime using methods like k-means clustering and geographic profiling. When I discovered the theories that were used on the show were real, I thought to myself, “Now that’s who I want to be when I grow up.”

My skills came in useful in 2014 when there was a need for someone to create a fiscal model for the alternative budget: to find a way to estimate future revenue and expenditure based on a number of inequalities and assumptions. This eventually evolved into electoral modelling for the first by-election after GE2013 at Teluk Intan. Using information like ethnic proportions in each voting stream and polling station, I was able to come up with a range of expected outcomes (i.e. specifically which party would get how many votes etc.). It turned out my model was off by over 6,000 votes, as one of the factors I heavily underestimated was voter turnout. My models for future by-elections were improved once I factored in proportions of voters who worked out of state.

Fast forward 3 years later, I’ve been recruited into INVOKE, where a team of data analysts are using highly advanced technologies like cloud computing and machine learning to model electoral outcomes for the upcoming general election. We’ve developed our own predictive models to determine, at the individual level, how fencesitters can be expected to vote, how huge numbers of newly registered voters will affect electoral outcomes at the state and parliamentary seat level, and even which party should stand at which seat to maximize its chances of victory. Before INVOKE started, I never would have thought of creating mathematical models for political campaigns. It just feels surreal to be in the shoes of the Mathematics professor from Numb3rs, explaining the use and results of statistical techniques like regression analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Markov chains for forecasting purposes.

I’ve been lucky to be able to work with colleagues who taught me the values of humility, humour, and empathy. I’ve worked with highly intelligent, down to earth people I deeply respect: Wong Chen, Rafizi Ramli, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail to name a few. If you’re looking for a place to intern, to learn more about what happens behind the scenes in an MP’s office (or to put your mathematics/computing skills to really awesome use), do consider working here at P104:)

Tonight the P104 office said goodbye to our very, very long term “intern”. Koh Wyhow, graduate of National University of Singapore, math sifu and regular office prankster, joined my office as an intern in November 2013. And he never left, until now.

His job as a math lecturer at Taylor’s College, meant that for the last 4 years, he would spend the morning lecturing and then after lunch, hanging out almost every day at our office. He became so comfortable here that he started forwarding all his Lazada items to our office!

A very fast worker with a brilliant mind, he is awkwardly funny and despite his casualness and slacker appearance (he wears sport shorts and slippers most of the time in our office), he is truly serious and committed to make Malaysia better.

We worked on many position and policy papers together. I believe that we share a curiosity and need to try solve all things complex and challenging. I really enjoyed bouncing ideas off him. His thought processing speed and usage of Excel is legendary.

Wyhow did all the Alternative Budget math and fiscal projections for the years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. He created mathematical models to some of my crazier eureka moment ideas. He calculated data when government stats were opaque and lacking. He computed stuff and found answers that senior and famous university academics have no clue how to do. We also created the initial model on how to compute corruption in government, which later became the basis of the NOW corruption index. He also did complex models for elections. Basically, he was our resident math genius. Every data driven Parliamentary office should strive to have one!

Unassuming and down to earth, Wyhow is truly one of the great unsung heroes of change. After self-learning how to do big data stats and after joining INVOKE big data team, Wyhow has decided to quit lecturing and will be getting a 9 to 5 corporate big data job.

So tonight, we said goodbye to his daily visits. Nevertheless, he has promised to try to join us for weekly badminton sessions and community service nights.

We wish Wyhow all the best in his new job! He joins the ranks of our P104 Jedis.